


Play Me Another

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Series: Unexpected Love [1]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Comfort, M/M, Music, kisisng, season two, slight changes from show canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 04:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15856698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: Oswald likes the routine he's built up with Ed, he likes the quiet nights listening to his friend playing the piano.





	Play Me Another

Oswald sat quietly on the bed, he had the quilt that Ed boasted he’d made himself wrapped around himself, hiding under the thick fabric that smelled of his newfound friend. He watched as Ed played the old piano that sat off to the side, he could see his back and the way his muscles moved, saw the cheap wrist watch he wore on his left wrist. He smiled to himself as he listened to the melody, a song he hadn’t heard before, and honestly, he didn’t want to ask. The last time he inquired what he was playing the response was that the song was from a video game soundtrack. He decided to instead just enjoy the peace of the moment. Light from the green neon light outside poured into the apartment, bathed the furniture in an odd sickly shading, but it was soothing to him now. 

The apartment was small, it reminded him of the apartment he’d shared with his mother. The one he’d grown up in until her death and consequently the cops hunting for him, the last he’d heard the place had been ransacked by the cops and knowing that made him sick. He sniffled and tried to make himself stop thinking about that, anytime he let himself go there he ended up sobbing again and he’d promised himself he was going to get better. 

Still she hadn’t been dead long, it was a rather hard thing to think about, to realize. 

He didn’t even realize the music had stopped until Ed was sitting cross legged in front of him on the bed. Ed smiled at him, his hair hung over his face in curling tendrils that admittedly were cute. There was a strange darkish charm to the man, it was something he’d noticed the first time he’d met him when he’d brushed him off as a minor annoyance instead of anything else. He admittedly regretted being rude to him that day, he realized now that he was a good person to have on his side. 

“You’re thinking too much again.” Ed commented.

“Says the man who spends half the night writing God knows what and pacing like a lunatic.” Oswald responded, a slight bitterness to his tone.

He noticed Ed didn’t sleep all that much, he mostly worked on cases from work that his co-workers could give a shit less about, and did his own sort of experiments to fill the time.

“I have…Sleeping issues, but this isn’t about me. You’re the one with a wounded shoulder.” 

Oswald groaned when Ed pulled the quilt down, he allowed it when the other man unbuttoned his shirt and began looking at the bandages that covered his gun shot wound. He didn’t tell him about the pain, not because he was stubborn, but because the pain wasn’t intense. For him there was something awkward in it when Ed undid the bandages and began looking at the healing wound. He felt like a patient in a hospital or maybe like one of the frogs they dissected in biology class back in high school, he knew Ed didn’t mean to make him feel that way. He winced when Ed pressed against the skin near the area.

“Sorry” Ed quickly apologized, he let his hands drop down away from his friend’s shoulder.

“It’s fine, just it’s tender there. It’s healing quickly, before you know it I’ll be out of your hair.”

Ed frowned, Oswald didn’t even feel that elated at the thought of leaving the apartment. It wasn’t that he was scared; the worst that could happen was Theo killed him or the cops arrested him, he was fine with either, but the thought of leaving and not getting to spend more evenings with Ed left him feeling….Strange.

“You don’t have to, I mean….Once things are settled with Gallavan and the cops, you can keep living here if you’d like. That is if you want, you don’t have to.”

Oswald placed a hand on his knee, Ed stared down at his hand then looked back up at him. 

“Thank you, I appreciate the offer, and I might take you up on it if I’m being completely honest. If I survive and don’t end up in prison then it’s going to take some time to rebuild my empire and get a new mansion.”

He missed the mansion, not like there weren’t a good dozen or so littered throughout Gotham city, but he’d won that one.

Ed smiled, he placed a hand on top of Oswald’s, fingers brushing against his skin. “Perhaps once you get things back in order I could be of assistance, I really do enjoy helping you, and I swear I can be very useful.”

Oswald looked at him, he’d told him repeatedly that he didn’t feel he should further dig this hole. He knew that if Ed worked for him that he could quite easily keep his identity hidden, if Ed could continue working at the GCPD then he could honestly replace Jim and become a much more agreeable source of information on the criminals and the cops in the city. Ed was valuable and trustworthy, but Oswald still wasn’t keen on the idea. Looking at him, how excited and rather naïve he seemed when it came to this lifestyle. As far as Oswald knew of him, he had no family that could be killed or exploited, the one woman he’d been with he’d ended up taking her life in the midst of a situation Oswald still didn’t fully understand. Ed had nothing anybody could hold against him, but still he looked at all of this like a game. 

“I’ve told you before….”

“Please I want to, I know what you’ve said, but I feel like fate wants this for me.”

“And if something happens to you then I have to live with the guilt.”

If Ed got hurt, arrested, or killed it would be his problem. He wondered for a moment just how the Hell Fish Mooney did it, looked at him when he’d been fourteen years old and decided to throw him into a lifestyle that he was even now at twenty-four still too young to be a part of.

Ed took hold of his hand squeezing it. “I’d be careful, besides even if something happened to me there’s no reason for you to feel guilty.”

Oswald stared at him, wondered if he was capable of grasping the bigger picture. He felt that either Ed didn’t value himself all that much or he just couldn’t understand that his new friend valued him far too deeply. He almost scared himself with how much he was growing to care about Ed.

“We’ll discuss it. Once the situation with Theo and his sister is handled and I come back home then we can talk further about it.”

“Thank you, this really means a lot to me.”

Ed hugged him tightly, face buried against the side of his neck. Oswald rubbed his hand along his back, oddly enough he enjoyed having him close like this and feeling his warm breath against his skin. He was almost sad when Ed pulled back not that he pulled too far back.

“It also means a lot to me that you consider this your home.”

Oswald smiled, “I might as well and once I’m financially set again I’ll get another mansion, you can live with me.”

“Won’t that look suspicious?”

He shrugged, “I don’t really care, you’ve done so much for me the least I can do is offer you a very nice home.”

Ed leaned in kissing him gently, Oswald rubbed his hand over his exposed forearm humming against his lips as they kissed. 

“Thank you.” He whispered against his lips before pulling away.

“I do have something I want to ask you.” 

“What is it?”

“Could you play that song you played last night, that video game one?”

“The one from Silent Hill?”

Oswald nodded, he wasn’t entirely sure, but the title did sound familiar. Ed pressed a kiss against his forehead before getting off the bed and returning to the piano. Oswald pulled the quilt back over himself and relaxed, content on watching the other man feeling this safe sorrow as the song’s melody filled the room.


End file.
